“Yes.”
“Since then you have met him frequently, I take it?”
“No, only of late.”
“And for some time you have been friendly with a young man named Harry Hopwood, a newspaper correspondent?”
“I wouldn’t say ‘friendly.’ I have met him from time to time.”
“Now, there is a well-known Society woman with whom you and Mrs. Hartsilver are both acquainted—Mrs. Mervyn-Robertson. A little while ago you may remember, you and Mrs. Hartsilver came here to ask us to make private inquiries about Mrs. Mervyn-Robertson’s past life. Since then Mr. Hopford has called here on a similar mission, and Captain Preston and a Mr. George Blenkiron have done the same. We have found out certain things about the lady which we have reported to you all separately; other things we have found out which for private reasons we deem it inadvisable to tell you, at any rate for the moment. We should like to warn you, however, that the lady referred to has many influential friends, and we would venture to advise you to attempt as little as possible to pry into her private life. She is a dangerous woman, a very dangerous woman, though this, naturally I tell you in strictest confidence.”
“Thank you,” Yootha answered. “And now can you throw any light at all upon the mystery of the stolen pearls?”
“I am coming to that. You no doubt heard some time ago of a robbery of jewelry and bank notes from a safe in Mrs. Mervyn-Robertson’s own house in Cavendish Square, though nothing about it appeared in the papers?”
“Yes, everybody seemed to know about that at the time.”
“Everything stolen that night was covered by a special insurance. Now, the pearl necklace with the theft of which you were unjustly charged was also covered by a special insurance, and the policy was made out by the Company which insured Mrs. Mervyn-Robertson’s jewelry. Madame Marietta Stringborg, to whom the stolen pearl necklace found in your possession belonged, is a friend of Mrs. Robertson—they met first in Shanghai some years ago. These may have been coincidences, of course——”